Failures and Triumphs

Veggie Burger Attempt 1

I have been trying to use more vegetables and less meat after I got some slack from a reader about my obsessive use of meat in everything. Then I saw an episode of Future Food where they made veggie burgers out of what cows ate. The ingredient in that that I had never thought of using was beets. They gave the concoction a red meat color which makes it look way more appetizing. I had a beet laying around so I decided to use that as my starting point and build from there. The most important texture and flavor component in my mind was the fat of meat. So I had to figure out what to use for that. So I headed to Whole Foods, via bike by the way which was extremely hard due to all the hills, to look for veggies to turn into a patty.

I figured roasted mushrooms would give it a meaty flavor and I had those in the fridge so I just needed a fat component. This was when I spotted taro root. I figured that would add a fat like texture. So with this all in mind I headed home and attempted this concoction. I boiled the beets and taro while roasting the mushrooms and sautéing some onion. I mashed the taro slightly once done, pureed the mushrooms, and chopped the cooked beet very fine. Then I mixed it all together and wallah! It actually looked just like ground beef.

But this was where the similarities stopped. It was super super sticky and would not form into a patty. So I first added some corn starch. Which didn’t do much. So I added flour which did a little. I formed it into a patty and fried it up like I would a burger.

The problem was it was not solidify when cooked. It still stayed as a paste and spreadable. So though it did make a lovely burger,

it just smashed and shot out the sides when I bit into it. Plus it just tasted like beets and flour which was not very appetizing. Next time I need a good binding agent and something to really make the flavor pop. But it was a good learning experience. There will be an attempt 2.